Wednesday, 7 May 2014

Welcome romance writer, Michele Zurlo...

1.What do you wish men understood about women?

Michele:
That women are more intelligent and capable than them. We are the better gender. Once they accept this, we can take over and
rule as we were meant to. Seriously, though, I think most men understand women
as well as anybody understands another person. Men and women stereotype each
other, and that’s always problematic. Expect the best from someone, and that’s
what they’ll give you.

2.Do you only work on one book at a time?

Michele:
It depends on the time of the year. From May-August, I can work on multiple
books. From August-April, half of my brainpower is devoted to my day job
(teaching middle school English.)

When I
work on multiple books, opposite things tend to happen. If one heroine likes
something, the heroine in the opposite novel will hate it. With Kiss Me
Goodnight, I started it in December 2012, so I didn’t work on anything else. It
took me several months to write because I had to take breaks to work on edits
for Mina’s Heart and Re/Paired. Kiss Me Goodnight ended up being very different
from both of those novels—mainstream and new adult. In addition, Lacey ended up
being an atypical heroine. Both Katrina (Re/Paired) and Mina (Mina’s Heart) are
very sweet, submissive women, while Lacey doesn’t have a problem taking charge
whenever she feels the need.

3.Who is your favorite fictional couple?

Buffy and
Angel. It doesn’t get better than a vampire slayer falling for a vampire with a
soul and then having to kill him to save the world. That pairing was pure
genius.

4.Favorite TV show?

Michele: Doctor Who.

Favorite Doctor: David Tennant (funny and arrogant.) Favorite
Companion: Tie between Donna Noble (Catherine Tate is a comedic genius) and
River Song (Alex Kingston and I have the same hair, and she’s just about the
best character ever created.) If you haven’t seen the show, I highly recommend
it. This show is almost as good as Buffy was.

5.Do you set daily writing goals? Word count? Number of
chapters? Do you get a chance to write every day?

Michele:
I don’t get a chance to write every day, and I don’t stress about meeting a
word count. I tend to write as an idea strikes me. If nothing happens for a few
weeks, then I turn my energies toward enjoying my family. Inspiration eventually
happens. Writing isn’t my primary job, so I do prioritize my day job over
writing. It pays the bills. More than that, forcing the muse never leads
anywhere good.

6.Who was the last person you hugged?

Michele:
Twin #1 just hugged me because she wanted me to put her down as my answer.

7.What are you working on now?

Michele: I’m working on the revisions to Kiss Me by Moonlight, the
follow up to Kiss Me Goodnight. After that, I will go back to revising Letting
Go. I should get the rights to it back next year, and I plan to re-release it
in the original version, which was written in first person. My writing skill
and style have grown in the past five years, so there are a lot of revisions to
be made. It’s almost like I’m rewriting the story.

KISS ME GOODNIGHT

by Michele Zurlo

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BLURB:

I’m Lacey
Hallem, and I have a few secrets. These aren’t them: I wash my hands a lot and
lie when I’m stressed. Also, I have horrible taste in men. That’s how I knew
Dylan was trouble the first time I saw him…

Life can be challenging for Lacey, especially when things
don’t come in sets of six, but she’s smart and funny and able to keep her
demons at bay—most of the time. She might have sensed trouble when she set eyes
on Dylan, a delectable musician in a vintage T-shirt, but that doesn’t stop her
from thinking about him, or spending more and more time in his company.

Enter Thomas. Wealthy, handsome, and completely adoring of
Lacey (flaws and all), he’s everything a man should be. So why can’t she
convince her heart to fall in love?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

EXCERPTS (Please choose only ONE to use
with your post):

Excerpt#2 (Lacey meets
Dylan for the first time)

Within minutes, Mr. Hotness appeared on the other side of my table,
blocking my view of the road. I was struck by his teal eyes. I hadn’t expected
them. The color seemed too bold to be true on the surface, but when I looked
more closely, I saw flecks of blue and green. His midnight hair, longish,
falling over his forehead and curling at the ends, made their color stand out
even more.

He smiled—a friendly one, not a wanna-fuck one. “Are these seats taken?”

I wouldn’t have minded seeing the wanna-fuck one, though he was clearly
with his son, and blatant flirting, even if he was divorced, would be crass. I
didn’t see a Mrs. Hotness or a ring anywhere, but men this yummy didn’t stay
single for long. And again, the fact that I found him attractive spoke volumes.
I might be seeing his face tonight in place of Davey’s. Sorry, Davey. Oh—maybe
Mr. Hotness and Davey together, both of them focused completely on me. That
fantasy bore further exploration.

I shook my head. The thought of those lips wrapped around pink parts of
me banged around in there, but eventually clattered away. I did not give him an
inviting smile, though I was tempted. He oozed sexy badness, and whoever says
they don’t have a weakness for that has a serious case of the pants-on-fire
syndrome.

AUTHOR Bio and
Links:

I’m Michele Zurlo, author of over 20 romance novels. During the day, I
teach English, and in the evenings, romantic tales flow from my fingertips.

I’m not half as interesting as my characters. My childhood
dreams tended to stretch no further than the next book in my to-be-read pile,
and I aspired to be a librarian so I could read all day. I’m pretty impulsive
when it comes to big decisions, especially when it’s something I’ve never done
before. Writing is just one in a long line of impulsive decisions that turned
out to showcase my great instincts. Find out more at www.michelezurloauthor.com
or @MZurloAuthor.

So you teach middle school English by day? Do you students know what your alternate job is? Oh, and I have to agree with you about your favorite fictional couple. Buffy and Angel were so good together. Of course, Veronica and Logan were good too...on occasion!